Three generations of mothers and daughters take center stage, with 20th century events as backdrop, in this novel of depth and humor spotlighting the power of music-from classical to jazz to rock and international folk-and the tug between ethnic loyalty and global consciousness. Alice, a classical pianist and daughter of Eastern-European Jewish immigrants, marries violinist Izzy shortly before World War II. After their daughter Beth is born they move from New York City to the fictional town of Delaware City, New Jersey, where Izzy works in a furniture store. As she raises Beth, Alice exhibits prejudices too common in her generation against people racially and ethnically different from herself. Yet, in her own way, she is open to a variety of experiences. Alice's world includes a psychic aunt, a piano teacher of Native American and Irish descent, an adult piano student in a wheelchair who reads palms, and her close friend Sophie, who has a daughter Beth's age. Beth grows up in Delaware City caught between her mother's value system, her own ideas-and her quest for social acceptance. Beth's resentment over being made to study piano deepens the rift between her and her mother. In her teens, Beth is introduced to rhythm & blues by African American high school girls. Beth's love of this music soon extends to rock, and then jazz-all of which her mother dislikes. At college in Ohio, Beth becomes involved in the early civil rights movement with her closest friends Melissa, a budding reporter and sexual explorer; Valerie, Beth's intellectual mentor, whose family is evasive about their Native American ancestry and who ponders her possible lesbianism; and Julius, a Black civil rights activist who challenges Beth's beliefs and self-image. Alexis, Beth's daughter, is born in Denver. As a pre-schooler, she finds herself in an uncertain world, often confused because her learning disabilities reduce her communication skills. Yet she finds she can do remarkable things with music. Tension develops between Alexis and her mother as Beth struggles to overcome profound changes in her life. These three distinct voices give us an unforgettable picture of the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship and of how women in three generations approach war, love, sex, death, career, friendship-and each other.
I began writing creatively as soon as I could string words into sentences, when I was about seven years old. Now, a few decades later ;-) I'm author of five books: Beyond All Desiring, a novel; Three Part Invention,a novel; Goddess Matters: the mystical, practical and controversial; Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century: from Kabbalah to Quantum Physics; and She Lives! The Return of Our Great Mother. The two novels are available in both print and Kindle editions. The others are available in print only. A study guide for the Kabbalah chapters in Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century is available in a Kindle edition.
The print version of Beyond All Desiring has won 3 awards: Top Prize, 2006 Ulysses Award; Finalist, Best Books Awards 2006; and Finalist, 2006 Media Darlings Book Awards.
The enlarged edition of Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century was declared Winner in the "Religion: Comparative " category of the USA Best Books 2009 Awards.
I grew up in Ewing, NJ, received a journalism degree from Ohio University, and have worked as a reporter on a daily newspaper, and as writer for and editor-in-chief of medical and health publications. My short fiction and poetry have been published in a variety of journals, magazines, and anthologies. I was a columnist for The Beltane Papers from 2002 to 2007. For more about me, please visit http://www.judithlaura.com/about.html
